Pete Firmin’s response to the threat of auto-exclusion
I acknowledge receipt of your letter of 13th August.
I have little doubt that such letters have gone out to members you are determined to expel and my response to your questions will have no effect on that.
Regardless of this:
1) The article you refer to was written long before the decision to proscribe Labour Against the Witchhunt (LAW) was taken, and I have not played a part in LAW since then. To apply such decisions retrospectively goes against any concept of natural justice.
2) I was present at the lobby of the NEC on 20th July, not as a member of LAW but in protest at the proposal before the NEC that day to introduce a list of proscribed organisations. You are essentially arguing that I can be expelled for opposing that decision. Does this mean in future any member can be thrown out because they disagree with a decision? Or am I being charged with guilt by association because organisations which you disapprove of were present in the same place as me? As you yourselves write, the protest was organised by Labour Against the Witchhunt and others. Many members are appalled at the decision to introduce a list of banned organisations, yet you choose to imply any opposition means support for a particular organisation. This would seem to go against any understanding of either freedom of speech or freedom of association.
As a socialist, I support the right of those organisations to organise in support of their views within the party, just as many other organisations, such as Labour to Win, Open Labour and the Tribune Group of MPs do. As long as they do not breach party rules, such as supporting candidates against the Labour Party, such organisations should not be banned, any more than Labour MPs who share platforms with Tories or Lib Dems are.
This decision to ban chosen organisations is just the latest escalation of a war Keir Starmer and David Evans seem intent on waging against the democratic rights of Party members. As you will be aware, I have been suspended since November of last year, supposedly guilty of the dual crimes - as CLP chair - of allowing delegates to decide what they wished to discuss, rather than follow the diktat of David Evans, and of antisemitism in the shape of articles written for Labour Briefing in defence of others wrongly accused of antisemitism and signing letters to the press - along with many others - stating my opposition to the crimes of Israel against the Palestinians. It certainly feels like I have a target on my back, especially as it is pretty clear the allegation of antisemitism was ready and waiting to be use at a “suitable” opportunity. Like so many others, I have heard nothing about my case since the letter suspending me in November (though I did receive an instruction that I am not allowed to campaign for the party).
As many have said for a long time, the party’s disciplinary process is a long way from what many us have fought for in our workplaces to give the accused a fair hearing.
I have been a member of the Labour Party for over 40 years, in that time holding many positions at branch and CLP level, campaigning for the Party in every election in that time. I have often been in disagreement with the local or national party leadership, including clashing with Peter Mandelson, over the abolition of Clause 4 in 1995. I have been a conference delegate several times, often with a mandate to oppose policies promoted by the leadership. Yet despite all those disagreements, sometimes heated, until recently it was never the case that we were forbidden from discussing issues, however contentious.
During my party membership, solidarity with those facing injustice has been a key part of my activity, including support for the - local - Grunwick strikers, refusing to allow a train load of coal to be moved when I worked in a signal box during the miners' strike 1984-85, and many disputes as a workplace and union activist in my time as a postal worker. I have lost count of the picket lines I've supported, the anti-racist and anti- war demonstrations I've been on and the activity in support of refugees undertaken. During that Party membership I have been a member of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, of Momentum, a solidarity supporter of Jewish Voice for Labour, the Labour Campaign for Council Housing and an active member of the Labour Representation Committee since its formation in 2004.
The current leadership speaks of "Labour values" and how those of us on the left don't share them. Those are my labour movement values and it says a lot about the current leadership if they reject them.
In my time in the party, I've experienced a range of leaderships. Far too often leaderships have seen benefit-cutting, attacking migrants and strikers as some kind of shortcut to popularity. Those have never been my values.
The current party leadership seems determined to go down that shameful route. The belated and lukewarm opposition to the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (SpyCops), and Overseas Operations bills, the refusal to back school workers in their opposition to the premature opening of schools during Covid (and using the excuse of antisemitism to get rid of Rebecca Long Bailey who was supporting their union) and its call for a pitiful 3% pay increase for NHS workers are among the many indicators. All this despite the fact that when he stood for the leadership Keir Starmer pledged to continue the radical policies of the Corbyn years and unite the party.
It is a strange kind of unity which has driven out and demoralised thousands of members.
As a longstanding member, I was delighted when Corbyn won the leadership, and pledged to a break with the minor tweaking of Tory policies which has so often been the Labour approach. I was even more delighted to see thousands of new members joining, bringing ideas and enthusiasm with them.
Perhaps the current leadership's greatest "achievement" is to take away the hope from those young members who thought that Labour offered a real alternative.
I would prefer to stay in the party and fight for my values against the current leadership, but I will certainly not bend the knee to stay in. I will continue to fight for my values, if necessarily from the outside, supporting those who do so inside, as well as taking my opposition to this awful Tory government into campaigns.
Against all those who turn their backs on the policies we need and the democracy we need to produce and fight for them, I can only say "Our Time Will Come".
